Chapter 9: Kiara

Chapter 9: Kiara

I expected the Mythguard to try to track me once I was on my own again. That was why I left as quickly as possible without looking back, once more assuming my beast form and running into the trees. The darkness was respite, shielding me from any prying eyes. Briefly, I had considered staying in the safety of Everett’s home overnight, but I couldn’t bear to show any kind of vulnerability by relenting to their help.

Instead, I found a comfortable little burrow among the boulders on the mountainside deep in Eastpeak territory and fell asleep there. It was the first night in a long time I slept for a solid eight hours. My exhaustion caught up to me.

In the morning, hunger plagued me. It always did. I spent that time foraging for berries, chickweed, violets, and the bright yellow frills of chicken-of-the-woods growing low on oak trees. Mushrooms were perhaps the most substantial nourishment I could find in the wilderness. I ate whatever non-poisonous varieties I could find, but even then, it didn’t seem to satisfy me. It never felt like enough, not when my body was perpetually screaming for protein I couldn’t have. I was hungry again by the late afternoon. Most of my time was spent deep in the heart of Eastpeak, and it was there I should have stayed if I wanted to keep foraging, but restlessness drew me back to the perimeter. I went northward, following my heart toward Dalesbloom.

The skies darkened, sapping all the colour from them as clouds rolled in. The air felt heavy, wet, and cold for late September, tossing leaves in a frigid breeze that cut through my silky fur. My mind shifted back to the search for my mother, combing through the mountainside for evidence of the Inkscales. If I could catch their scent, I could follow them back to where they were hiding. It became my sole focus for hours.

Until hunger roared to life in me once again.

This time, worse than before. My hunger was intense and gnawing. I paused between the trees, the overcast thinning to let beams of the late sun fall through, but it was only a parting warmth before the grey skies would dominate again. It was as though the Sky Goddess couldn’t decide whether to bless me or curse me. In that last warmth, I closed my eyes and sought the source of the agitation in my muscles. My jaw clenched despite the urge to gnash my teeth. The phantom scent of flesh rushed into my nose. Without thinking, I took off, searching for something else. Not dragons. Something alive.

A wolf’s instinct to hunt could never be subdued.

Grey clouds vanquished the sun for good, plunging the forest into a dull, damp darkness as evening approached night. I hunted until the ghostly scent of fresh blood became real. There was a doe half a kilometer away, already slain, stinging my nose with its poisonous gore. That defeated the purpose of my search, didn’t it? I wanted to hunt, chase, kill, but the fact that I couldn’t was perhaps soothed by the fate which had been performed for me. Still, I was driven toward the animal, whether by curiosity or primal greed; I couldn’t entirely tell. My beast had taken control of me, and I wasn’t thinking, just operating off of natural instinct.

Through the trees, I stalked until the body appeared in the ferns, bright red viscera the only colour I saw in the dusk. I slowed down, my tongue dashing against my nose to drink in the smell. The moment I was close enough, I detected a secondary smell hovering around it, impressed in footsteps in the dirt and woven into teeth marks out of the flesh. The smell made me freeze in my tracks.

Colt Hexen. This was his kill.

It was no wonder I’d felt so ravenous. Our newfound fated bond would have shared his hunter’s excitement with me. Snarling, I cursed that I could feel what he felt, then kept a wide berth around the kill as I circled it. The Hexen son hadn’t lingered, not that I could tell. There was no movement in these trees, no sign that he had stayed, but it was dark, and I couldn’t see too deeply into the vegetation. Slowly I crept closer, craning my neck to sniff at the carcass. It burned my nose and throat. I wanted so badly to eat.

With experimental curiosity, I perched my teeth on the doe’s shoulder, savoring how it felt to have prey in my jaws. I was taunting myself, I knew, but I couldn’t deny how pleasing it was to at least experience the sensation. When I bit down harder, the flesh gave, and I felt bone under my canines. I lost myself in it until I accidentally split the hide, and blood touched my gums.

Pain flared through my mouth. I reeled back, shaking my head and spitting. My unicorn ancestry wouldn’t allow me to even taste it as much as I wanted to.

Recoiling from the carcass, I growled in frustration at myself. It would be better if I just left this alone. I was only going to hurt myself if I kept messing around. My tail lashed angrily as I backed away, but again hunger thundered in my stomach, and my beast took over. I couldn’t stop my feet from drawing closer to the carcass, and this time my maw opened wide, and I took a mouthful of meat that I knew would poison me—but my beast didn’t care.

I was always at war with myself. My impulses would destroy me. I was just so hungry, and something beyond my control made me want to eat.

For a brief moment of pleasure, my body reacted violently, agony searing my mouth and throat, and everywhere blood made contact. My hybrid beast was blinded by bloodlust and gluttony. It overwhelmed me, and as though in an attempt for my inner unicorn to stop me before it was too late, my vision darkened, and my limbs failed. I wrenched away from the carcass one last time, then crumpled, paralyzed, and finally unconscious.

The ground underneath me moved, and my mouth was open, full. Lying limp, I couldn’t understand how the forest around me seemed to be sliding along without the energetic expense of my body. My eyes rolled as my head heavily tipped up, searching for an explanation, only to draw into focus the thick string tied around my muzzle, preventing me from opening my mouth any further than it already was. Something had been stuffed into my mouth—fabric that was soaked through with saliva and blood, choking me with the piney scent of my fated mate. I inhaled sharply and felt like I couldn’t breathe enough. In sudden panic, I thrashed, only to find my front legs were tightly bound by another piece of clothing. A sweater with long arms was tied tightly around my ankles. Somebody had tied me up using what little resources they had.

My waking resistance caused my captor to drop me. Hands submerged in the thick fur behind my neck released me, and I watched a body stand up straight, walking around me, looking down at me. “Sorry about the…” He gestured vaguely at his mouth, referring to the t-shirt he had stuffed into mine. “I didn’t want you to bite me when you woke up.”

A muffled growl ripped out of my throat. Pain scorched my gums and tingled across my body, where I was still bloodstained.

“And your feet,” he continued, “I didn’t want you to run off before I could get my shirt back.”

Grunting, I heaved my body to the side until I was propped up on my stomach, my elbows pinned in front of my chest while my paws stretched ahead of me. I struggled to focus my sights on the man standing before me.

Colt Hexen crouched and met my eyes, smiling. “You weren’t supposed to eat that. Guess we both know what happens when a unicorn-wolf hybrid tries to eat fresh meat now, huh?”

I was still groggy but not too groggy to recognize the flicker of anger within me.

“I was just getting you away from the carcass. In case you woke back up and tried to eat it again. It’s okay. I don’t blame you. Lots of shifters can’t control their beast before they’re marked. You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve seen that happen lately,” said Colt, standing up again. From what he’d just said, I expected him to start untying my feet and to take the t-shirt out of my jaws, but instead, he circled around me. I laboriously raised my head and watched him through narrowed eyes.

Colt appraised me, kneeling beside me again. He reached out to touch my back, and I bristled, leaning in the opposite direction and kicking at him. With a small laugh, he pulled his hand back. “You’re covered in leaves and muck and blood. I just thought I’d try to clean you up a bit.” When I didn’t answer, he perched his elbows on his knees and met my eyes. “Why don’t you shift back? It’ll be easier to clean you.”

I snarled through the t-shirt.

“Are you still angry about Saturday night?” Colt stood up, rubbing the back of his neck. He looked entirely unbothered, smiling still like the whole situation was amusing to him. As he walked back to where my head sat, I watched the lean muscles in his arms and bare chest ripple, his locks of black hair hanging above his brow. A playful lilt lifted his voice. “Sorry about that. You know how it is… Just doing what my dad tells me to do. Of course, that was before we found out we were fated mates. The Moondream changed things.” Colt loomed over me. “I’m not going to hand over my fated mate to be slaughtered.”

I didn’t believe a word he said. Especially not once he extended a hand to me, and I saw his fingers arching, going for the spiraling horn on my forehead. Visceral fear caused me to toss my head, lashing out at his open palm. The sharp point of my horn sliced across his right hand, yielding blood once more.

Colt shouted and retracted his wounded hand, clutching it in the other as blood poured between his fingers. “Goddammit!”

With my front paws bound, I couldn’t do much more than struggle to sit upright. I searched desperately for a path of escape, staggering to my feet and backpedaling away from Colt. But I couldn’t run. As much as I tried, I only ended up falling over. I plunged my nose between my front legs and tried to pull the string off my snout or dislodge the t-shirt from between my teeth, and wasn’t fast enough before Colt charged over to me again.

He stood above me this time, wrapping his arms around my neck. I thrust my horn at him, but he kept dodging, keeping his distance from the only weapon I had left. With concentrated anger, he pulled my head back and squeezed my throat, holding me firmly as I threw my body in protest.

“I didn’t want to use force, but you’ve given me no choice,” he breathed. “I have to find a way to protect you. So you’re going to come with me, whether you want to or not.”

His voice hissed into my ear and was the last thing I registered before consciousness drained from me.

My body was once more at his mercy.